Hundreds and in some cases thousands of people expressed discontent with the economy in Asia, the Americas and Europe.

OWS IS SWEEPING THE GLOBE - WITH ONLY HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE SHOWING UP!?!?!?

THE NYTIMES AND OTHER LEFT-WING DOMINATED OUTLETS OF THE LAMESTREAM MEDIA ARE SO FREAKIN' IN THE TANK FOR THE OWS SCUM THAT THEY DON'T SEE THE PURE IDIOCY OF THEIR STORY:

HOW CAN ANYTHING THAT'S BARELY ATTRACTING A THOUSAND PEOPLE - AFTER MONTHS OF FALSELY POSITIVE NEWS COVERAGE (THAT'S BEEN COVERING UP THE ANTISEMITISM AND NIHILISM OF THE PROTESTERS) - BE SOMETHING THAT'S "SWEEPING THE GLOBE"?!?!

THESE FREAKIN' MORONS AT THE NYTIMES MAY BE ABLE TO DUPE THEMSELVES, BUT THEY CAN'T DUPE MOST AMERICANS.

Stephen Brown at Front Page Magazine writes about Egypt's already stagnating economy and the collapse of food resourcing that's likely to come in its wake, not to mention massive flights of refugees to Europe and even imminent terrorism that can threaten Israel:

Egypt is the biggest wheat importer in the world, but, frighteningly, may soon run out of funds to buy on international markets the necessary food to feed its impoverished masses. A story in the Financial Times last week states that the Central Bank of Egypt’s foreign currency reserves have dropped $10 billion, from $29.8 to $19.4, since last February.

“The current reserves are estimated to cover 4.8 months of imports, down from 6.9 in April, 2011,” the story goes on to say.

Which translates into only five months until catastrophe strikes. Egypt consumes 14 million tonnes of wheat annually, half of which it imports. The amount of wheat Egypt currently has in storage combined with planned purchases, primarily from Russia, is expected to last only until March.

While the recent massacre of Christians by the Egyptian army demonstrates that Egypt is disintegrating, the inability of the country’s rulers to feed their country’s millions of poor would lead to a collapse into chaos of monumental and cataclysmic proportions. The Asia Times columnist Spengler (a literary pseudonym), who has written about Egypt’s impending food crisis, believes it will not matter what form of government eventually takes charge in Egypt because the starvation issue will override all other concerns. As Spengler succinctly puts it: “Even Islamists have to eat.”

“It [Egypt] will look like the Latin America banana republics, but without the bananas,” Spengler states. “That is not meant in jest: few people actually starved to death in Latin inflations. Egypt, which imports half its wheat and a great deal of the rest of its food, will actually starve.”

But with the way they've been educated - or rather not - under Islamism, that's just why, depending on your POV, that's not good news. As mentioned above, there was the bloodbath conducted against the Christians last week, and as the article says, it'll likely get worse, with many Islamofascists taking out their anger about their self-inflicted damage on the Coptic Christians.

No solution is also to be found in Egypt’s backward agricultural and education sectors either. An Egyptian wheat field only produces about 18 bushels per acre, while a non-irrigated American field produces almost double. The Egyptian education system is also not one that produces innovative and creative people who could help solve the looming food crisis. One of the Egyptian presidential candidates, Mohamed Elbaradei, indicated as much when he said of the Arab world in general that it is “now a collection of failed states who add nothing to humanity and science,” as “people were taught not to think or act, and were consistently given an inferior education.” And the fact that 91 percent of Egyptian women undergo female genital mutilation, often at the hands of medical doctors, further indicates just how backwards Egyptian culture truly is.

It is thus highly doubtful that Egypt can reverse its appalling record of its treatment of Christians and women and reorient itself toward building the democratic institutions necessary for economic prosperity and cultural advancement that could feed a people. The corruption, the cultural backwardness, the anti-Christian hatred, unemployment, a stagnant economy, a dishonest, inefficient bureaucracy and Muslim religious fanaticism all point in the other direction. The Egyptian army’s killing of 25 Christians last Sunday, for example, cost Egypt substantial stock market losses besides the money from tourists who cancelled their vacations. Significantly, only Egypt’s finance minister resigned over the murderous incident.

Even if the Muslim Brotherhood doesn't rise to power (who knows if the election will take place; there are people in Egypt who're afraid of them), even the current rulership are not the kind of people I'd want to be around.

If a collapse does occur in Egypt, southern Europe can expect a massive flight of refugees to cross the Mediterranean in search of food and safety. Israel and the West must also be prepared in such a case to face in Egypt a failed state along the lines of Somalia and Pakistan, in which terrorists will be welcome. In such an anarchic situation, Egyptian Christians would be facing a Rwanda-style bloodbath, which the West should currently be preparing to prevent. In the end, disruption of the food supply will see Egypt plunge into a murderous chaos and become Africa’s latest, largest human tragedy.

If the west doesn't want tons of refugees who could end up biting the hand that feeds them turning up on their doorstep, nor a situation in which terrorists will operate and tons of innocent people murdered, that's why they're going to have to start preparing to face the coming crisis.

Cain's 9-9-9 plan screws the working class. Here's how - and I'm gonna make this real simple:

The working class now pays to the federal government NO INCOME TAX and only 7.5% payroll tax. That's a grand total of 7.5% in taxes.

Under Cain's plan, this person will now pay 9% income tax. THAT'S A 1.5% INCREASE.

But that's not all. On top of that, this working class person will also pay another 9% on everything they buy.

THIS AIN'T CHICKENFEED FOR FOLKS LIVING PAYCHECK TO PAYCHECK; IT WILL BANKRUPT THEM.

REPEAT: IT WILL BANKRUPT FOLKS LIVING PAYCHECK TO PAYCHECK.

These folks ain't saving 9% of each paycheck as it is; most have no cushion, and are probably saving for their kid's education or to buy a home or for a down payment on a car. Cain's plan would wipe out any and all saving these folks are struggling now to put together.

In other words, the Cain 9-9-9 plan is a disaster for perhaps as many as 45% of Americans.

Anyone who would propose such a plan is not ready to be POTUS.

I challenge anyone to prove I am wrong. And that means I defy Rush, Hannity, Levin, Kudlow, Cain, or any conservative bloggers like these great bloggers: Doug Ross, Jim Hoft, Zip, Erik. Donald Douglas, The Other McCain, Instapundit - anyone.

I am flabbergasted that Cain's 9-9-9 plan hasn't been laughed at and derided.

Herman Cain a wonderful man and would make a great Secretary of Commerce, but he'd be an awful GOP nominee for POTUS. Huntsman is actually better and he's a freaking disaster.

YUP: because of his awful tax plan, I put Cain at the absolute bottom of the pack.

Friday, October 14, 2011

I returned to college after failed ventures in 1990 at the age of 26.I worked full time, joined the Naval Reserves, and took out loans to pay for college. I earned my BA in 3 ½ years. I paid my loans off.

I worked for two years after college at a below poverty wage.I worked hard to grow in my expertise.I took a job making more than double my poverty wage.4 years later I was upper middle class. I have helped make other people rich. I am grateful for the opportunity.

Since 2001 there has always been non-family members living with me in my home. I housed my own family plus a family of with 6 kids. I housed a drug addict.I currently house a single mother and her 2 year old daughter. None of them have ever paid rent. I have been blessed and I want to bless the lives of others without a police state.

I have never owned a new car; I have never lived in a new house; I have never owned a new piece of furniture. I donate monthly to programs for the poor. I pay lots of taxes. I have been married for 25 years. I have 7 kids, 2 are adopted. I am blessed beyond measure.

I am the 53%.

I intend to be the 20%. My dream would be to be so wealthy that they protest my house. Then I will know I made a difference in the lives of many.

Make money. Use it to bless others. Asking the gov’t to do it for you is lazy hypocrisy.

On Friday morning, her colleagues staged a small protest outside the school in "solidarity" with their colleague, whom they identified as "Lise".

"Her gesture calls on all staff to show their solidarity and underlines the difficulty we have in carrying out our duties. We expect the authorities to act responsibly," the teachers said in a statement, brandishing signs reading "Never Again".

1 - LISE IS A CHRISTIAN NAME.

2 - IT SEEMS TO ME OTHER TEACHERS HAD ISSUES WITH SOME OF THE STUDENTS THERE, TOO...

The Peace Now group said the plan was approved earlier this week by a municipal committee, which had given the go-ahead for construction on the site which lies on land seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war...

... Peace Now, which closely monitors city housing activity, said the plan would create an entirely new neighborhood in an area called "Givat Hamatos" or "aircraft hill" -- named after an Israel jet that fell at the site in the 1967 war.

The land lies within the expanded boundaries of Jerusalem, which Israel annexed unilaterally after its capture of territory in the war -- a move not internationally recognized.

The Palestinian Authority on Friday slammed Israeli plans to build more than 2,500 apartments in the new Jerusalem neighborhood of Givat Hamatos, over the 1967 Green Line.

"Israel's plan to build 2,610 housing units ... between Bethlehem and Jerusalem, makes a mockery of ... efforts to bring about a just and lasting peace," Chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat said in a statement.

These 2600 apartments - that Israel desperately needs - are NOT inside what had been historically considered Jerusalem.

Also: Jerusalem had only been divided for 18 of its 3000+ years, so that boundary hardly has any meaning or value. If Berlin can be united in a free Germany, then Jerusalem should be united in a free Israel.

AND: Israel ANNEXED Jerusalem in 1967, so it;s a moot point.

And it's a phony reason the Arabs are using as an excuse for not negotiating.

YEAH PHONY EXCUSE":? Arafat negotiated with Israel from 1003-2000 and Israel was building every day in every one of these years. If it didn't stop Arafat, then it shouldn't stop Abbas.

Jews - like those who support PEACE NOW - who think Israel shouldn't build in JERUSALEM are dupes or worse - Judenrats.

... a central design flaw dogged CLASS. Unless large numbers of healthy people willingly sign up during their working years, soaring premiums driven by the needs of disabled beneficiaries would destabilize it, eventually requiring a taxpayer bailout.

After months insisting that could be fixed, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, finally admitted Friday she doesn't see how.

"Despite our best analytical efforts, I do not see a viable path forward for CLASS implementation at this time," Sebelius said in a letter to congressional leaders.

The law required the administration to certify that CLASS would remain financially solvent for 75 years before it could be put into place.

But officials said they discovered they could not make CLASS both affordable and financially solvent while keeping it a voluntary program open to virtually all workers, as the law also required.

Monthly premiums would have ranged from $235 to $391, even as high as $3,000 under some scenarios, the administration said. At those prices, healthy people were unlikely to sign up. Suggested changes aimed at discouraging enrollment by people in poor health could have opened the program to court challenges, officials said.

"If healthy purchasers are not attracted ... then premiums will increase, which will make it even more unattractive to purchasers who could also obtain policies in the private market," Kathy Greenlee, the lead official on CLASS, said in a memo to Sebelius. That "would cause the program to quickly collapse."

That's the same conclusion a top government expert reached in 2009. Nearly a year before the health care law passed, Richard Foster, head of long-range economic forecasts for Medicare warned administration and congressional officials that CLASS would be unworkable. His warnings were disregarded, as Obama declared his support for adding the long-term care plan to his health care bill.

OBAMACARE IS A FRAUDULENT, CORRUPT, SOCIALISTIC PIECE OF CRAP AND IT WAS FROM THE GETGO.

The shortfall could be as high as 298 billion euros if the European Banking Authority (EBA) sets the core Tier 1 capital ratio at the high-end of 9 percent instead of 7 percent, Goldman said, and cut price targets on banks citing credit losses from exposure to sovereign debt and likely recapitalizations.

THE POLITICIANS ARE TRYING, BUT ALL THEY HAVE REALLY DONE TO DATE IS ISSUE ROSY-SOUNDING PR STATEMENTS EVERY WEEK.

THE HEAVY-LIFTING AND TOUGH DECISIONS HAVE YET TO BE MADE. AND MOGHT NOT BE. TIKE IS RINNING OUT. SOON CHINA'S BUBBLE WILL BURTS AND THEN: ALL BETS ARE OFF.

AS THE SPECIAL ELECTION IN NY'S #26CD PROVED - (AND AS PALIN ARGUED IN HER CHAT WITH LEVIN AFTER DECLINGING TO ENTER THE RACE), THE ONLY WAY OBAMA CAN WIN IS IF RON PAUL - OR SOMEONE ELSE ON THE RIGHT- RUNS AS A THIRD PARTY CANDIDATE.

But maybe the most telling example of how London's image is changing is this one from around Tower Hamlets, where the street architecture seen is quite alarmingly Arabic style, and there's 2 mosque minarets nearby.

The dhimmitude and Islamization there isn't just creeping, or as May puts it, galloping: it's skyrocketing.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

posted at 2:03 pm on February 5, 2008 by Bryan

Levin, Hannity, Ingraham and now Nobel nominee Rush Limbaugh (membership req’d): Big talk radio swings unanimously for Mitt Romney. Rush makes several solid points that you’ve heard before, mostly regarding how McCain represents the GOP’s national security wing, Huckabee represents its social conservative wing, and Ron Paul represents the economic conservative wing, but Romney is the one candidate who represents all three by himself. Romney is a late convert to all three, which as I wrote the other day explains why conservatives have taken so long to warm up to him.

RTWT.

MITT RAN TO THE RIGHT OF MCCAIN IN 2008, AND HASN'T BACKTRACKED SINCE THEN; IN FACT, HE IS MORE CONSERVATIVE NOW.

Try to keep on workin'Try to keep on smilin'I will keep my Christian name and y'all can keep the change

I will keep my heroesPictures on the wallI'll keep my family safeYou bluff when I callI'm gonna keep my big V8Keep my friends the sameKeep the government outta my businessAnd y'all can keep the change

This country sure as hell been goin' down the drainWe know what we needWe know who to blameUnited Socialist States of AmericaHow do ya like that name?I'll keep the USA and y'all can keep the change

So FOX and friendsWanna put me downAsk for my opinionsThen twist it all aroundSupposed to be talkin' about my father's new CDWell two can play that "Gotcha' Game" just wait and seeDon't tread on me

This country sure as hell been goin' down the drainWe know what we needWe know who to blameUnited Socialist States of AmericaDon't ya just LOVE that name?I'll keep the USA and y'all can keep the change

I'll keep the USA and y'all can keep the change

Yeah, you can keep FOX and friends and ESPN outta your homes tooCuz Bocephus and all his rowdy friends and his song is outta there!

I love Herman Cain, but his tax plan is so awful that it disqualifies him for serious consideration.

The centerpiece of Cain's campaign is the 9-9-9 tax plan.

It's simple, BUT TRULY AWFUL for two reasons:

1 - it gives the federal government a national sales tax without canceling and making unconstitutional the income tax - and as Bachmann and Mark Levin have pointed out: that's a non-starter for real conservatives.

2 - If Cain wins the nomination and runs on the 9-9-9 plan, then the Democrats will simply point out that this is a HUGE TAX INCREASE on the bottom 51%, who currently pay NO INCOME TAX and only 7.65% and were I come from that is lower than 9%. SO... Cain's plan will actually RAISE taxes on all the households that pay only FICA - and that means he wants to raise taxes on 51% of the households.

IT'S ACTUALLY WORSE: many of the bottom 51% live check-to-check and SPEND NEARLY ALL THEIR PAYCHECK EACH WEEK. Under Cain's plan, they will get 1.5% less each week and have to pay 9% more each week.

That amounts to more than a10% loss for 51% of the households in the USA.

AND ANOTHER THING: many people can deduct their state income tax from their taxable federal income - and Cain's plan would seem to disallow that. So, all the people in states with high state income taxes would get clobbered again.

BOTTOM-LINE: CAIN'S PLAN MAKES FOR SOME GREAT SOUND BITES, BUT THE BIGGEST BITE IS THE ONE IT WOULD TAKE OUT OF MIDDLE AND LOWER INCOME PEOPLE.

IT'S AWFUL, AND IT SHOWS THAT HE IS NOT READY TO BE POTUS.

I THINK HE COULD MAKE A DECENT VEEP AND A GREAT SECRETARY OF COMMERCE.

There are some substantial misunderstandings on the nature of the Gilad Shalit exchange deal. I should stress that the list of those Palestinian prisoners being given in exchange for him has not yet been released. But note the following:

–The number 1000 is impressive but most will be chosen by Israel, meaning they will be prisoners with the lightest sentences and crimes — in other words, people who would have been released anyway during the next year or two.

–Israel rejected Hamas’s demand to release those being called “arch-terrorists” who were major organizers of attacks or responsible for a larger loss of life.

Yet this is why any deal made might not go through, if Hamas wants the bloodiest barbarians kept in Israeli prisons. Hamas themselves have been making unconfirmed claims of who's to be set free, and only showing their true colors in the process.

That said, this was a rather predictably divisive action within Israel itself, as families of terror victims were angry at the news. If the US doesn't negotiate with terrorists, why should Israel?

President Barack Obama's campaign raised more than $70 million combined for his re-election and the Democratic party during the summer, an amount that gives him a clear advantage over his Republican rivals but is less than his initial fundraising effort.

... The numbers include $42.8 million for Obama's campaign and $27.3 million for the Democratic National Committee, which will help Obama's re-election effort next year.

... to match the amount they raised the last time [OBAMA RAISED $750 MILLION IN THE 2008 CONTEST], Obama would need to bring in nearly $120 million combined for each of the next five quarters to keep pace.

USUALLY INCUMBENTS RAISE MORE MONEY WHEN RUNNING FOR RE-ELECTION THAN THEIR INITIAL CONTEST.

Vice President Joe Biden said today that "nothing has been taken off the table" when it comes to the U.S. response to an alleged plot by Iran to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the U.S. and unleash deadly terrorist bombings in Washington, D.C.

"It is an outrageous act that the Iranians are going to have to be held accountable," Biden told ABC News' "Good Morning America". "This is really over the top."

Er, um... kin somebody puhleeze splain sumpin 2 me!?

This Iran country has been killing our soldiers for years – with ied’s in Iraq and by aiding the Taliban in Afghanistan, (not to mention the fact thay were also behind the Beirut bombings) – and NOW OBAMA AND BIDEN AND HILLARY SAY WE HAVE TO SO SOMETHING - NOW - because Iran wanted/planned to ice a SAUDI!?!?

Sheesh.

Do Saudis count more than US soldiers!?!?!?

It would seem that maybe to Obama they do.

Obama never bowed to a US soldier.

And another thing: Iran hasn't exactly hid their nature and their hegemonic desire from anyone.

They are dangerous and deserve kinetic attention regardless of their alleged assassination efforts here or their actual efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

They are a huge threat and must be dealt with before they get nukes.

That is, IF the west wants to avoid a nuclear attack by Iran onus and/or our allies.

That potential threat is a greater threat and deserves greater attention than any supposed assassination plot.

BOTTOM-LINE: It's sad and sickening that this supposed plot is getting Obama's panties in a knot when Iran's attacks on our soldiers hasn't.

Too bad we have to wait until 2013 to get a patriotic POTUS who will put our soldiers and allies ahead of Saudis..

Group spokesman says releasing those left in Israeli prisons after exchange is "top priority"; Mashaal reportedly in Cairo to finalize deal. Hamas on Wednesday warned that Gilad Schalit will not be the last soldier that they will kidnap. Abu Obaida, spokesman for the armed wing of Hamas, Izzadin Kassam said that Schalit, who is set to be released as part of a prisoner exchange deal, "will not be the last solider kidnapped by Hamas as long as Israel keeps Palestinian prisoners detained."

The senior official added that his forces were committed to all the prisoners that remain in Israeli prisons after the prisoner swap deal, and their release will be the organization's top priority.

RESPONSE TO THE KIDNAPPING ISRAEL SHOULD HAVE EXECUTED 1000 ISLAMO-TERRORIST PRISONERS.

APPEASEMENT ALWAYS ONLY ENCOURAGES THIS WHO ARE APPEASED.

I BETHCYA NONE OF THE BLOGS YOU REGULARLY VISIT PREDICTED WHAT I DID.

THEY DIDN'T HAVE THE BALLS OR WERE WRAPPED UP IN THE JOY AT SHALIT'S RELEASE.

I TELL IT LIKE IT IS. IF YOU LIKE THAT THEN PLEASE: SPREAD THE WORD, BOOKMARK US, BLOGROLL US, FOLLOW US.

According to this news (which contains a bit of moral equivalence, be advised), the Israeli government is going to do a prisoner exchange to regain Gilad Shalit.

I must be honest here, but I find it galling that all this time, no raid was made on Gaza to put an end to those Hamas monsters who'd kidnapped Shalit to begin with, which could have helped to rescue him.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday signaled the United States remains open to exploring a peace deal including the Haqqani network, the militant group that U.S. officials blame for a campaign of high-profile violence that could jeopardize Washington's plans for withdrawing smoothly from Afghanistan.

"While Sweden has long taken pride in its public healthcare system, lengthening queues and at times inconsistent care have prompted many Swedes to opt for private healthcare with many gaining the benefit through insurance policies offered by employers, currently responsible for 80% of healthcare insurance market.

The idea behind private health insurance is simple enough: those put off by the idea of heading to publicly funded clinics and hospitals can purchase a policy through an insurance company and instead enjoy speedy medical attention with private doctors.

As many as 500,000 Swedes are now estimated to be using private healthcare insurance, up from 100,000 only ten years ago. And a flawed public system is often cited as the cause of the rapid expansion.

Long queues are one of the main complaints for consumers of Sweden's public healthcare services, with patients sometimes forced to wait as much as fifteen times longer for treatment compared to private options."

IF PUBLIC HEALTHCARE WORKED WELL, THEN THE HEAVILY TAXED SWEDES WOULD NOT WANT OR NEED TO SPEND ADDITIONAL PERSONAL INCOME OF PRIVATE HEALTHCARE.

IF - AFTER 5 DECADES - THE SWEDES AND THE BRITS CAN'T MAKE IT WORK WELL THEN WE WON'T EITHER.

Boortz, at the tail end of the interview, asks Cain how he’d do in a debate against Obama: “It would almost be no contest.”

Ticking off ways he could compete with Obama, Boortz says that Cain would be able to talk about the black experience in America.Cain’s response: “[Obama’s] never been a part of the black experience in America.”

THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS MARCH 2008 - YUP, 2008, BEFORE THE PRIMARIES WERE REALLY OVER - AND WHILE THERE WAS TIME FOR DEMOCRATS - INCLUDING BLACK DEMOCRATS - TO DO SOMETHING:

Barack was raised in Hawaii and Indonesia. He struggled with his identity until his conversion by Jeremiah Wright. Some say Wright didn't convert him to Christianity, but actually made Barack an African-American. The "Black Liberation Theology" practiced at Obama's church would seem to back this up.

Barack's greatest accomplishment has been his ability to make African-Americans think he's one of them - even though he is NOT the descendant of slaves, even though his ancestors were NEVER victims of segregation or Jim Crow, and even though his parents NEVER took part in the Civil Rights Movement.

He is in the process of fooling white Americans about more than his identity; he is fooling many about his political ideology.

He is running as a uniter and a doer, even though he is the most liberal Senator currently serving, and one who has NOTHING top show for his entire term to date: HE HAS ACCOMPLISHED NOTHING.

And despite the fact that he has UNITED nothing and no one.

The core of Barack's identity really is this: he is a sly sweet-talking LIAR and a thoroughly corrupt Chicago politician, who is a member of a racist church, who is also a hard-core leftist who has already begun to list the taxes he will increase.

REGULAR READERS KNOW WE ARE USUALLY WAY WAY AHEAD OF THE PACK.

AND UNAFRAID TO BLUNTLY SPEAK THE TRUTH.

SPREAD THE WORD.

ME AND MY PARENTS AND BROTHERS AND NEIGHBORS - ALL LEFT-WING NY JEWS - WERE MORE INVOLVED WITH THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT AND AFRICAN-AMERICAN RIGHTS THAN ANYONE IN OBAMA'S FAMILY EVER WAS.

OBAMA CAN BE BEST DEFINED AS AN ALINSKYITE/BREZHNEV SOCIALIST AND PART OF THE CHICAGO MACHINE, AND NOT AS AN AFRICAN-AMERICAN.

BLACKS WHO WANT TO ELECT A REAL AFRICAN-AMERICAN SHOULD VOTE FOR FOR HERMAN CAIN, AND IF ELECTED, CAIN WOULD BECOME THE FIRST AFRICAN' AMERICAN PRESIDENT.

Most of Western Pennsylvania's congressional delegation won't make it to President Obama's visit to Pittsburgh next week, saying their day jobs got in the way.

Several blamed a vote and other duties. But at least one analyst noted that Obama is struggling in the polls as he tries to sell a jobs plan that Republicans don't want. On Tuesday, Obama will stump for the plan at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local No. 5 training center on the South Side.

"Some of the more specific polls are demonstrating that in the areas where the president enjoyed most of his strength, he doesn't enjoy that today," said Gerald Shuster, a political communications professor at the University of Pittsburgh. "You couldn't snub him, but at the same time, I wouldn't want to be right up front on the platform."

IT'S OVER: OBAMA IS THE KISS OF DEATH FOR DEMOCRATS, AND THEY KNOW IT.

IF OBAMA WANTED TO DO THE RIGHT THING FOR HIS PARTY AND THE NATION THEN HE WOULD AT LEAST ANNOUNCE HE WON'T SEEK RE-ELECTION, AND AT BEST ... RESIGN.

Central Huijin, the domestic arm of China’s sovereign wealth fund, will purchase shares in Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the official Xinhua news agency announced on Monday. Xinhua added that the purchases by Huijin – its first such public intervention since a similar decision at the onset of the financial crisis three years ago – would “support the healthy operations and development of key state-owned financial institutions and stabilise the share prices of state-owned commercial banks”.The announcement came too late for the Chinese stock market, which had closed at a 30-month low...

IT'S GONNA GET REAL UGLY REAL SOON. LIKE 3-6 WEEKS.

IF THE USA SUPER-COMMITTEE AND THE EU AND CHINA ALL FAIL AT THE SAME TIME.... IT'S GONNA MAKE THE GREAT DEPRESSION SEEM LIKE A PICNIC.

The latest satellite data shows the UV output is far more changeable than scientists had previously thought.

A UK scientific team now shows in Nature Geoscience journal how these changes lead to warmer winters in some places and colder winters in others.

The researchers emphasise there is no impact on global warming.

You might be able to say 'this winter is more likely to be warm' or 'more likely to be cold' with more accuracy”

The Sun has recently been in a quiet phase of its regular 11-year cycle, which co-incided with three years in which the UK, along with other places in northern Europe and parts of the US, experienced cold conditions unusual in the recent record.

But unusually warm weather was felt both further south, around the Mediterranean Sea, and further north in Canada and Greenland.

"The key point is that this effect is a change in the circulation, moving air from one place to another, which is why some places get cold and others get warm," said Adam Scaife, one of the researchers on the paper, who heads the UK Met Office's Seasonal to Decadal Prediction team.

DONTCHYA JES LUV THAT THEY SAY REGIONAL WARMING AND COOLING HAS "NO EFFECT" ON GLOBAL CLIMATE!

"The Holy See’s course with Iran’s Ahmadinejad began in 2009 at the United Nations, when at the first day of the “Durban II” Conference, the Iranian president, the only head of state to attend, made a speech blasting Israel as “totally racist” and referred to the Holocaust as an “ambiguous and dubious question”.

When Ahmadinejad began his rant against the Jews, all the European delegates left the conference room. The Catholic delegation didn’t say a word.

Recently, Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai, head of the Lebanon’s Catholic Church, sent his envoy, Father Abdo Abou Kassem, to Teheran for the weekend, to attend aconference in support of the Palestinian Intifada and of a “Zionist-free middle east”.

The conference was attended also by Hizbullah ideologue, Mohammad Raad, and by the Hamas’ leader Khaled Meshaal.A few days before that, a delegation of clergy members of Iran’s Islamic Consultative Assembly visited the Vatican in Rome.

They met with top Catholic officials.“We held talks with the Vatican’s culture minister over the conditions and the popular uprisings in the region and the Vatican minister said that popular uprisings are inspired by the Islamic Revolution in Iran”, a member of the parliament’s Clerics Commission, Hojjatoleslam Hossein Ebrahimi, told Fars News Agency."

WIKI: ... a metaphor for a superficial means of appeasement. In the case of politics, the phrase is used to describe the creation of public approval, not through exemplary or excellent public service or public policy, but through the mere satisfaction of the immediate, shallow requirements of a populace.

The phrase also implies the erosion or ignorance of civic duty amongst the concerns of the common man (l'homme moyen sensuel).

In modern usage, the phrase has become an adjective to describe a populace that no longer values civic virtues and the public life.

Or as famous American author Robert Heinlein said, "Once the monkeys learn they can vote themselves bananas, they'll never climb another tree."

To many across the political spectrum, left and right, it connotes the triviality and frivolity that characterized the Roman Empire prior to its decline.

Europe’s debt crisis hit another milestone on Sunday when the French and Belgian governments agreed to nationalize Dexia, Belgium’s biggest bank, infusing it with billions in taxpayer money after it became the first casualty of the Greek sovereign debt crisis.

The move came as Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France acknowledged that Europe’s banks still needed billions of euros more to cushion against a possible Greek default. In meetings Sunday in Berlin, they announced that they would have a “comprehensive solution” by the time leaders of the G-20 group of nations meets in early November in Cannes, France.

“We are determined to do what is necessary to guarantee the recapitalization of our banks,” Mrs. Merkel said.

THIS MAY ASSUAGE MARKETS, BUT ONLY TEMPORARILY: YOU CANNOT SOLVE THE SOVEREIGN DEBT CRISIS WITH MORE SOVEREIGN DEBT.

AND NATIONALIZING A PRIVATE BANK'S DEBTS DOES JUST THAT.

THIS IS JUST SUBSTITUTING ONE'S NATION'S CURRENT DEBT PROBLEM WITH ANOTHER NATION'S FUTURE DEBT PROBLEM.

EVENTUALLY THIS WILL FAIL THE WAY SOCIALISM ALWAYS DOES - WHEN YOU RUN OUT OF OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY.

RIGHT NOW - ON THIS DEAL - THE MONEY IS COMING FROM FRANCE AND BELGIUM.

BUT WHEN GERMANS ARE ASKED TO PONY UP EVEN MORE TO BAIL OUT BANKS IN LESS HARD-WORKING AND LESS PRODUCTIVE WELFARE STATE ECONOMIES, THEY WILL RIGHTLY SAY NEIN!

AND THE HOUSE OF CARDS WILL COLLAPSE.

AS A MATTER OF FACT, I THINK THAT - AT THE VERY NEXT OPPORTUNITY - FRANCE'S AND BELGIUM'S SOVEREIGN DEBT RATING WILL BE DOWNGRADED AS A RESULT OF THIS VERY ACTIONS.

THIS MIGHT HAPPEN AS SOON AS THE MARKETS ACCEPT THE FACT THAT FRANCE'S SOCGEN AND BNP ARE ALSO FAILING. SOMETHING THEY DENY - NOW...

WHY'D THEY DO THIS? COULD IT BE THAT THEY WERE EGGED ON BY THE IDIOTIC SCUM THAT COMPRISES THE "INTELLECTUAL CORE OF THEIR MOVEMENT", A CORE MADE UP OF COMEDIANS LIKE BILL MAHER AND JON STEWART AND ROSEANN BARR?

THIS IS NO SMALL MATTER.

ONE OF THE CHIEF REASONS IDIOTS AND DUPES LIKE THE OCCUPY WALL STREET CROWD ARE WASTING THEIR TIME AN ENERGY ON CIRCUSES,

(INSTEAD OF FOCUSING ON PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS -

LIKE REDUCING TAXES AND REDUCING REGULATIONS

AND SHRINKING THE SIZE OF GOVERNMENT),

IS THAT THEY TAKE ADVICE FROM FOLKS LIKE

MAHER AND BARR

AND VALUE MORE THE INCORRECT ANALYSES

AND DISCREDITED PROGRAMS OF MARX AND ENGELS,

RATHER THAN THE PROVEN PROGRAMS OF

FRIEDRICH HAYEK AND MILTON FRIEDMAN.

IF THEY REALLY WANT TO MAKE THIS COUNTRY GREAT AGAIN, THE THEY SHOULD ALL GO HOME, BATHE, AND READ THE CONSTITUTION, AND THE ROAD TO SERFDOM.